Category Health & IP

WTO TRIPS Council Looks At IP And The Public Interest, Importance Of Research Exemption

A relatively new topic of discussion at the World Trade Organization committee on intellectual property is the relationship between intellectual property and the public interest. This week, WTO delegates discussed the application and benefits of a regulatory exception to IP rights allowing earlier entry of generics to the market, known as the Bolar exception. The committee also heard about a request from least-developed countries (LDCs) to improve technology transfer measures that developed countries have the obligation to provide under WTO rules.

WTO, WHO, WIPO Heads Share Views On Innovation And Access At Trilateral Symposium

How to encourage health innovations and make sure that new medicines, vaccines, or diagnostics will reach every person who needs them? That is a question which has been hotly debated in different fora. Yesterday, the World Trade Organization, UN World Health Organization, and UN World Intellectual Property Organization jointly held a symposium on how innovative technologies can promote the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The WHO director general called on his colleagues to support policies facilitating access to health technologies.

Swiss Panel Looks At Value-Based Drug Pricing, Link Between R&D And Prices

Some products are too cheap, generic drug companies do not invest in them because they do not make enough money out of them. Others seem astronomically expensive, and are said to include the costs of all research, successes and failures alike. Panellists at a recent Swiss-organised expert event in Bern concurred that something must done about pricing, and explored some surprising ways to do it.

Least Developed Countries Ask For Better Implementation Of TRIPS Tech Transfer Requirements

The World Trade Organization council on intellectual property rights will hold the first of its three annual meetings next week. The now-usual item on IP and innovation is joined by a discussion topic on IP and the public interest. Separately, the WTO least developed countries group has put forward a request that developed countries fully implement their technology transfer requirements under the WTO rules. The council meeting will be preceded by a high-level trilateral meeting of the WTO, World Health Organization and World Intellectual Property Organization.

Gilead Wins Sovaldi Domain Dispute Over Buyers’ Club Generic Sellers

Pharmaceutical company Gilead has made headlines in recent years for offering the hepatitis C drug Sovaldi that has helped many patients. And for the fact that it came with an eye-popping price tag. Perhaps in a sign of the times, Gilead this month won an open-and-shut case against a squatter on the domain name "sovaldi.eu," that was offering lower-priced generic versions of Sovaldi, including through links to "buyers' clubs" organised to obtain medicines more affordably. The website was called, "SOVALDI. The life-saving cure for Hepatitis C which nobody can afford." Was it a little act of rebellion, or just another internet opportunist?

WHO Names High-Profile Commission On Non-Communicable Diseases

The World Health Organization today announced a new high-level commission of heads of state, ministers and other leaders in health and development to come up with "bold and innovative solutions" against non-communicable diseases such as heart and respiratory diseases, cancers and diabetes. The chairs of the commission include the presidents of Uruguay, Sri Lanka, and Finland, the Russian health minister, and a former minister of Pakistan who was a candidate for director general of the WHO. They are joined by nearly two dozen others, including corporate public figures Michael Bloomberg and Jack Ma.

Indian Pharma Industry Disputes US Industry IP Index

The United States Chamber of Commerce industry group recently issued its annual global IP index, analysing intellectual property protection in 50 countries, as a prelude to the annual US government list of countries seen as not adequately protection US companies' IP rights. Now an Indian industry group has issued a counter-statement to the Chamber index, calling it a "tirade" and "self-serving".

Innovations For All: Swiss-Led Panel Looks At What Works, What Doesn’t

The current innovation system has yielded many important innovations and extended human life, nobody disputes this. But what about the cases where it hasn’t and a problem persists? A panel of health experts organised recently by the Swiss government and including representatives of the pharmaceutical industry, the World Health Organization, academia, and a research institution held an unusually open and positive discussion that sought to get underneath the issue.

Do We Need A Global Body To Set Priorities For Diseases And Research?

A recent panel of health experts gathered at the hallowed Swiss Intellectual Property Institute in Bern (which counts Albert Einstein among its alumni) tackled some of the toughest questions facing global health policymakers with an eye toward actually solving them and not just restating polarised positions. One of the ideas discussed at the event was how priorities for diseases and research are handled at the global level.

On IPR, Major US Trading Partners In Firing Line Of US Industry, While Cancer Patients Ask For Access

Every year at this time, the Office of the United States Trade Representative collects comments from stakeholders for its review of how well US trading partners are behaving when it comes to protecting and enforcing the intellectual property rights of US companies. Pharmaceutical companies and an alliance of rights holding industries came prepared with a list of countries to be put on special watch lists, including Canada, Brazil, India, Malaysia, and Switzerland. A patient group, on the other hand, asked that trade interests not supersede access to medicines worldwide.